- 1965
The Prime Minister proposed that the Post Office should be converted to a nationalised industry, and a Government study decided that the Post Office should be split in to two divisions - Post and Telecommunications.
- 1969
The Post Office Act was introduced, and the Post Office ceased to be a Government department in October that year. Under the Act, the Post Office had the exclusive privilege of running telecommunications systems, with limited powers to authorise others to do so too.
- 1975
The Queen opened the new Post Office research Centre at Martlesham, the most advanced centre for telecommunications research in Europe. This is now BT's Adastral park technical innovation centre.
- 1977
The Carter Committee, commissioned by the Government, recommended a further separation of the postal and telecommunications services. Their findings led to the British Telecommunications Act in 1981, and the creation of British Telecom.
- 1981
"British Telecom" was launched, and separated from the remainder of the Post Office. It was also at this time that the first steps were taken to introduce competition in the UK telecoms industry. The first telephones for sale were offered as an alternative to rental; the first cashless payphone, the Cardphone, was introduced; and radiopaging was extended to give a virtually nationwide service.
- 1982
Mercury Communications Ltd was licensed by the Government as a telecoms network provider and became the main competitor to BT; BT introduced its first electronic mail service, Telecom Gold, an early ancestor of Talk21; and international direct dialling (IDD) was made available throughout the UK.
- 1983
The first cordless phone, the "Hawk", came on the market, and itemised billing was trialled in Bristol and Bath.
- 1984
BT became a public limited company on 6 August, with 50.2% of the new company offered for sale to the public and employees in November. This was the first national floatation of a public utility. Shares were listed in London, New York and Toronto and, on 30 November 1984, closed at 130p. BT opened its Head Office in Newgate Street, London, and its first overseas office, in New York.
- 1985
Cellnet was launched, BT's mobile communications joint venture with Securicor.
- 1986
Trials of an electronic Yellow Pages system began.
- 1991
After a programme of refocusing, British telecom began trading as BT, and unveiled a new identity, the BT piper. The Government sold over half of its remaining shares in BT, retaining around 22%.
- 1993
Concert was created, following a strategic alliance formed with US telecommunications company, MCI; and the Government sold the remainder of its shares in BT, completing the privatisation process.
- 1994
Growth in the Internet exploded and e-commerce over the net began; peak rate charging in the UK was abolished; interactive TV was trialled; and Caller Display and Call Return services were launched.
- 1995
BT's family of alliances and partnerships continued to grow - announcements were made about BT's VIAG Interkom, Telenordia and Albacom joint ventures. Bt.com and the on-line BT Shop were launced; Per Second Pricing was introduced, and the last mechanical telephone exchange was switched off.
- 1997
BT had announced its intention to merge with MCI, its partner in Concert, the previous year, but WorldCom then made a counter offer for MCI, and BT agreed to sell its 20% stake in MCI.
- 1998
The European telecommunications market opened up to liberalisation, and BT was ready with its family of joint ventures, alliances and distributorships througout the region.
- 1999
BT and Microsoft Corporation announced a number of joint initiatives; BT and its European partners began running live customer traffic over their 45,000km pan-European network; and Cellnet became 100% owned by BT and changes its name to BT Cellnet. BT and AT&T announced a 1.2 billion deal to acquire 30% of Japan telecom; the formation of Advance, an alliance to provide seamless worldwide mobile communications; and that their global venture would be known as Concert.
- 2000
BT SurfTime was introduced, offering a range of options for residential and business customers to access the Internet without hidden charges; and, in April, BT won a 3G mobile licence in the UK. A comprehensive restructuring of the company was also announced, encompassing a radical separation of UK fixed telephony business in to Rental and Wholesale, and the creation of four new international businesses - Ignite, BTopenworld, BT Wireless and Yell.
- 2001
A tumultuous year for BT - Chairman Sir Iain Vallance retired and new Chairman Sir Christopher Bland joined; Yell was sold; the UK's largest ever Rights Issue was a resounding success, raising 6 billion; BT Wireless was renamed mmO2 and was demerged in a 1 for 1 share offer; BT refocused on Western Europe, exiting many joint ventures and alliances worldwide; the company became BT Group plc, and the restructuring process splitting the company in to separate lines of business was all but complete.
- 2003
BTexact Technologies is working on the communications technologies of the future on behalf of the BT Group. They anticipate that products and services such as voice over IP, wireless local netwoprks, xDSL and XML are set to become the hot topics of the next few months and years. And, looking slightly further ahead, BTexact pinpoint 3G, fibre-to-the-kerb (cabled homes), home networks and online fraud detection as the technologies to watch.
